With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the
price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

The following actions probably don't rise to quisling-type behavior, treason or selling out, but still demonstrate a low level of self-respect.

The University of Michigan's Muslim Students Association is collaborating (no pun intended) with Hillel to help out Katrina victims. If the MSA wants to help out the displaced of Katrina, couldn't it find a more qualified partner than an organization that supports the displacement of Palestinians?

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee collaborated (again, pun unintended) with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on February 12, 2008 to host a panel on dispelling myths and stereotypes in the Arab and Muslim communities at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. The panel included an ADC board member. The discussion focused on the demographics of local Arab and Muslim-American communities, and the issues that have affected these communities since 9/11. If the ADC has no idea what the ADL is about, it isn't qualified to do civil rights advocacy on behalf of Arabs. I couldn't find a website that stated this, but it was in an ADC-Michigan email sent out on February 13, 2008.

I'm all for helping out displaced people and exposing racist stereotypes, but not with the wolves who advocate displacement and spread stereotypes in the first place. Collaborating with those who caused your misery is immoral, self-defeating and stupid:

Sunni Militia Ends Cooperation with U.S. over Civilian DeathsIn Iraq, a U.S.-allied militia staged a massive walkout from its guard posts this weekend in protest of U.S. attacks that have killed twelve civilians this month. Members of the group, known as Sons of Iraq, are paid ten dollars a day and issued military vests to fight alongside U.S. forces. But nearly two thousand members abandoned their positions Saturday following a U.S. attack on a town south of Baghdad the day before. Militia members say U.S. forces deliberately opened fire after landing in a helicopter. The group says they will no longer work with the U.S. military.

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